By Jay Spivey
For the Clemmons Courier

The high school wrestling season just concluded this past Saturday night with the NCHSAA wrestling championships at the Greensboro Coliseum.
West Forsyth sent five wrestlers to the NCHSAA Class 4A individual championships, and two of them — senior Ziggy Malave at 160 pounds and sophomore Cayden Glass at 113 pounds came away with top-six finishes.
Malave finished fifth after defeating Daniel Freeman of Waxhaw Marvin Ridge by a 6-5 decision in Saturday’s consolation semifinals.
“I think it went pretty good,” Malave said. “We had five people going into this state tournament. First day, what was it? Three people got wins, two people lost. Second day, going in, we had two more people get knocked out (after the consolations), so they were done for the weekend. And we had three more still wrestling.
“And on that very last day we ended up having two more left — me and Cayden Glass.”
Glass, on the other hand, finished sixth after losing to Tiaj Thao of Lake Norman by pin at 1:30.
“It was great, great atmosphere,” Glass said. “It was great to go watch and wrestle. I was glad I was a part of it.”
Anthony Zahn at 106 pounds had to injury default after he broke his arm in Friday’s championship quarterfinals to Trevelian Hall of Lumberton at 2:22. Because of the injury, Zahn had to forfeit his first-round consolation match and was eliminated from the competition.
“It was a good weekend overall,” Coach Jason Hooker said. “We had a real bad injury at 106, and I really think that we take third in that weight class. That’s a bunch of points for the team that would’ve boosted us up. Plus, he would’ve been a placer coming out of his freshman year.”
In addition, Parker Broadus lost in the consolation quarterfinals at 145 pounds by a 5-3 decision to Austin Emmert of Mooresville, and Amet Faal lost in the consolation first round by a 5-0 decision at 152 pounds to Jason Sanders of Cornelius Hough.
“Parker was just in one of the toughest weight classes in the state,” Hooker said. “There’s eight guys in that bracket that could’ve been in the finals. And the guy that won it (Tyler Tracy of Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons), I don’t think anybody could beat him.”
As for Faal, that was completely different.
“Amet, he was happy to be there, and I think it hurt his drive throughout the week,” Hooker said. “And so, he wasn’t prepared for what was getting ready to happen.”
Malave won Thursday’s first round match with an 8-2 decision against Daniel Freeman of Waxhaw Marvin Ridge. He followed that on Friday and lost a 2-1 decision to Tristan Cotto of Wilmington Laney. Malave moved to Friday’s consolation second round and defeated Michael Lapata of Charlotte Providence with a pin at 2:26.
In Friday’s consolation third round, Malave defeated Garrett Benfield of Northern Guilford with a 10-6 decision.
“It’s just about you bounce back and overcome it,” Malave said of the loss on Friday morning. “Some people don’t do good with adversity. Sometimes you just have to overcome it.”
However, in Saturday’s consolation semifinals, Malave lost to Elijah Brown of Asheville Reynolds with an 11-1 major decision.
“I thought it was a lot to process that night, but I just went into the next day thinking and knowing that I was going to try my best to get the best place I can because motto we had going into Thursday, going to the state championship, was just be on the podium (which is the top six),” Malave said. “That’s all that mattered to me, was to be on the podium.”
Despite the loss to Brown, Malave advanced to the consolation finals where he faced Freeman again. This time, Malave won 6-1, giving him fifth place.
It was also Malave’s last match in the West Forsyth green and gold singlet.
“This year, it was a lot, but over the past four years, I feel like having to deal with COVID from my freshman and sophomore (years), it’s been pretty difficult to kind of bounce back with wrestling and stuff,” he said. “Just a lot of setbacks that happened during that time.”
Glass also had to weave his way through the consolation round. Glass defeated Cary’s Johnny Ramos of Cary by a 10-4 decision. Glass moved to Friday’s quarterfinals and pinned Charlotte Olympic’s Leyton Bean at 3:28. Later Friday afternoon, Glass lost by a 14-5 major decision to Noah Cauble of Monroe Piedmont.
“I tried to not think about it too much and even though I did (lose) I just used it as motivation to go out there and win,” Glass said.
In Saturday’s consolation semifinals, Glass lost by an 8-3 decision to Bradley Yoakum of Ragsdale. Glass lost to Thao in the consolation final, sending him to sixth place.
“(I’m upset) a little bit, but it can’t be helped,” Glass said.
Hooker said there were still plenty of positives from the season.
“Honestly, we overachieved,” Hooker said. “We never got what we wanted. And then as a coach, you always want more.”